Diamond Tooth Taxidermy Blog:

I recently came into contact with the striking and fabulous Kiki Hughes, proprietress of Kiki Hughes Boutique in Philadelphia. Word to the wise: click on that link and check out her store if you're near Philly. There are some truly, truly gorgeous wardrobe pieces in there (like my ostrich feather skirt!!!) and all the clothing is merchandised in such a clever and unique fashion that you'll kind of get sucked into a time warp and forget how long you've been there ogling at the displays.

Anyway, Ms. Kiki has this lovely pheasant head hat from her personal collection which her cat made into a sacrifice one night by ripping the head clean off. What killer instincts!

My cat Frankie, a.k.a the Diamond Tooth Studio Mascot, seems to not care less about anything feathered which makes him an ideal work buddy, provided I keep all things mousey out of his reach. For the most part, he just wants to be near whatever I'm doing. Example:

Upon closer inspection, this bird was more than just decapitated. He was straight ripped.

I started by sewing binding tape over the cracks and along the edge of the head which I then reinforced with an adhesive. This would provide a stronger bond once the whole thing was sewn back together.

Cotton filling back into the head:

Next was the binding tape along the edge of the bottom half:

Finally it's time to sew the head onto the body. This is where curved needles come in handy.

After the head was securely reattached, there was still the job of filling in the blank skin spots with feathers. Fortunately I have an abundance of pheasant plumage on hand and was able to find the right shade/size.shpe to blend in with the originals.

And he's finished! Top view:

Side view:

Other side view:

So the moral of the story is: I do repairs. Please feel free to contact me should an old piece of taxidermy in your collection need some new life breathed into it.

Yesterday I finally got around to paying the piper in regard to stitching up all the holes I created in my duck skins while degreasing them last week. The darning process added about an extra hour to the mount time, for the two ducks combined. Here's some sewn up holes:

One of these Buffleheads was just about shot to bits; there was no leg bone to work with, a shattered wing bone, and buckshot in the beak. Plus, when I was skinning it I pulled too hard when I reached the neck area and just about tore the entire hood off the damned thing. Sewing that up yielded no results as the whole creature just looked more pathetic the farther I got. PLUS I must not have degreased him enough because my fingers kept getting oily as I worked. I don't mind the finger oil (in fact it feels quite nice on my dry skin) but once I start transferring the oil from my fingers to the feathers on the exterior of the skin, they appear yellowed and dull. I could always proceed and then clean the feathers afterwards but that doesn't mean the oil residue on the inside won't bleed out through the skin eventually.

When good ducks go bad. Very, very bad:

I'm not sure how everything went SO WRONG on this one duck but I'm very thankful that all the mishaps were concentrated on him while the other one mounted so easily it was as though I were in a dream-state.

I positioned him on a hat (the 2nd for my Devon Horse Show series) and although he may look slightly unnatural, I wanted the wing to arc around the brim of the hat and frame the wearer's face. I'm trying to achieve just the right balance between whimsy and realism.